Sack of Bostra

Sack of Bostra
Part of the Crisis of the Third Century
Bostra's Roman ruins
Date 270 Location Bostra, Arabia Petraea (in modern-day Syria) Result Palmyrene victory
Belligerents
Roman Empire Tanukhids	Palmyra
Commanders and leaders
Trassus †	Zabdas Zenobia
Units involved
Legio III Cyrenaica	Palmyrene army

The sack of Bostra occurred around the spring of 270 AD when Queen Zenobia of Palmyra sent her general, Zabdas, to Bostra, the capital of Arabia Petraea, to subjugate the Tanukhids who were challenging Palmyrene authority.^[1]

The sack marked the beginning of Zenobia's military operations to consolidate Palmyrene authority over the Roman east. During the sack, the governor of Arabia Petraea at the time, a certain Trassus, attempted to confront the Palmyrenes but was defeated and killed,^[2] while the city was sacked and the Legio III Cyrenaica's revered shrine, the temple of Zeus Hammon, was destroyed.^[2]

The sack of the city was shortly followed by the subjugation of Arabia and Judea, and later a full invasion of Egypt, and is the first in the string of events which ended in open rebellion against the Roman Empire and the declaration of an independent Palmyrene Empire.